We came back from vacation and my 12 volt battery appears to be dead. Door won’t unlock with fob or emergency key. Also tried holding fob against the door while using key. Can’t get into car to pop the hood and charge the battery.

Will this require a tow? If so, I won’t be able to take the car out of park either. Are there special procedures?

There is nothing that should keep the mechanical key from turning in the lock. The problem is that the head of the key is very small. If you have to, use a pair of pliers to turn the key. That should be all that is required to get in the car.

I guess I’ll try pliers on it in the morning. I was worried something would break if I turned it any harder. My Prius valet key turns relatively easy without having to force it. Has anyone had the problem of a jammed lock before?

Well, I tried pliers. Did nothing but bend my key and scratch the paint on the door handle. Does anyone know if there is any way to access the hood latch cable from under the car if I remove any of the panels under there?

Apparently there is some sort of electrical assist provided by the 12 volt battery and without any life in the battery at all, it simply would not unlock. I tried using pliers as suggested and that only bent the key and scratched the paint. Before with a bad battery I had gotten the door unlocked but there was probably still a little juice in the battery and the emergency key worked fine. Both keys and fobs were factory originals and I’m the original owner.

Toyota had no suggestion but to have it towed to a dealer. I called AAA and they confirmed they could open the locked door with their service technician. The guy was there in 10 minutes, had the door open in 2 minutes and jump started the car.

After charging the 12 volt battery for a while, I tested the emergency keys and they work fine again. I can also confirm that the lock was not gummed up or anything but would hit a dead stop after turning 20-30 degrees clockwise when the battery was dead. This point seems to be the point where the electronic unlock is triggered because now that the battery is charged somewhere near this point is where the doors unlock.

I hope this will help someone else in the future if you don’t drive your EV for a while.

On a side note, would it be possible to use one of those solar chargers that plugs into the cigarette lighter to keep the 12 volt battery charged when we are gone for an extended period of time? Because the whole electrical system is somewhat different than an ICE vehicle I wasn’t sure if this would work like it does on my other cars.Thanks,